Well, I've been keeping the lights off at least twelve hours during the night and doing more frequent partial water changes, as well as feeding less. I think I've got two separate issues going on, though.
My convict tank is one issue, which is still recovering from my husband and daughter taking care of it while I was traveling on business. Ugh! The remaining convicts are still looking a little ragged, and there's still plenty of algae. I did notice last night (don't know how I missed this) that the filter in that tank sucked... or more correctly didn't suck; it was barely moving water.
I changed it out with a spare, which should seriously help out my poor, belabored convicts. Unfortunately, my well-meaning husband was left alone with the fish for a couple of hours yesterday, and decided to buy some cheap, fizzy, anti-fungal tabs for the convicts. He didn't take the charcoal out of the filter when he did this, and he also added twice the recommended dosage (he thinks) of algae-combating chemicals. ("If one dose will work, a double-dose will work twice as good, right?" 
) My wrath was legendary, and the water change I did yesterday evening was about 90%.
Now, I can certainly understand given all of the recent trauma in my convict tank why this tank is green. That being said, I have two other tanks that are almost equally green, and have had no such problems. I'd have to say that the more frequent cleanings and water changes, less light, and less food for these two tanks seems to be helping some but I really can't say that it's making a significant difference yet. I also worry about the less frequent, lower volume feedings as well; these two tanks are baby African Cichlids, and they need to EAT! I don't want to stunt their potential.
All of this would make perfect sense if all of the other tanks in the house were green too.. This plague seem to be selective with regard to where it strikes.
So, am I creating my own piscine-drama by worrying about this too much, or are there other steps I can/should be taking? HELP!!!
My convict tank is one issue, which is still recovering from my husband and daughter taking care of it while I was traveling on business. Ugh! The remaining convicts are still looking a little ragged, and there's still plenty of algae. I did notice last night (don't know how I missed this) that the filter in that tank sucked... or more correctly didn't suck; it was barely moving water.
I changed it out with a spare, which should seriously help out my poor, belabored convicts. Unfortunately, my well-meaning husband was left alone with the fish for a couple of hours yesterday, and decided to buy some cheap, fizzy, anti-fungal tabs for the convicts. He didn't take the charcoal out of the filter when he did this, and he also added twice the recommended dosage (he thinks) of algae-combating chemicals. ("If one dose will work, a double-dose will work twice as good, right?" ) My wrath was legendary, and the water change I did yesterday evening was about 90%. Now, I can certainly understand given all of the recent trauma in my convict tank why this tank is green. That being said, I have two other tanks that are almost equally green, and have had no such problems. I'd have to say that the more frequent cleanings and water changes, less light, and less food for these two tanks seems to be helping some but I really can't say that it's making a significant difference yet. I also worry about the less frequent, lower volume feedings as well; these two tanks are baby African Cichlids, and they need to EAT! I don't want to stunt their potential.
All of this would make perfect sense if all of the other tanks in the house were green too.. This plague seem to be selective with regard to where it strikes.
So, am I creating my own piscine-drama by worrying about this too much, or are there other steps I can/should be taking? HELP!!!
. When we moved into this house six years ago the light on our tank got damaged and we never replaced it because there was plenty of ambient light and with a light background you could see in there just fine. It seemed more natural, the fishes seemed calmer, and we never had algae again.
